VI. 



On the Indian and Arabian Divisions of the 



ZODIACK. 

 RY H. T. COLEBROOKE, ESQ. 



1 HE researches, of which the result is here laid be- 

 fore the Asiatick Society, were undertaken for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining correctly the particular stars, which 

 give names to the Indian divisions of the Zodiack. The 

 inquiry has at intervals been relinquished and resumed : 

 it was indeed attended with considerable difficulties. 

 None of the native astronomers, whom I consulted 

 were able to point out, in the heavens, all the asterisms 

 for which they had names : it became, therefore, ne- 

 cessary to recur to their books, in vvliich the positions 

 tDf the principal stars are given. Here a fresh difficulty 

 arose from the real or the seeming disagreement of the 

 place of a star, with the division of the Zodiack, to 

 which it was referred : and I was led from the considera- 

 tion of this and of other apparent contradictions, to 

 compare carefully the places assigned by the Hindus to 

 their nacshatras, with the positions of the lunar man- 

 sions, as determined by the Arabian astronomers. After 

 repeated examination of this subject, with the aid af- 

 forded by the labours of those, who have preceded me 

 in the same inquiry, I now venture to offer to the pe- 

 rusal of the Asiatick Society the following remarks, 

 with the hope, that they will be found to contain a cor- 

 rect ascertainment of the stars by which the Hindus 

 have been long accustomed to trace the moon's path, 



T«E question, which I proposed to myself for invest!^ 

 gation, appeared to me important, and deserving of 

 the labour bestowed upon it, as obvioufly effiential to- 

 wards a knowledge of Indian astronomy^ and as tend- 

 ing to determine another question : namely, whether 

 the Indian and Arabian divisions of the Zodiack had 

 ^ common origin. Sir Wjlliam Jones thought, 



y 2 



